Rod Blagojevich Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

Rod Blagojevich won't be spending the holidays with his family for a long, long time.

The former governor of Illinois was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison Wednesday on 18 counts of felony corruption. Blagojevich was first arrested in December 2008 for attempting to sell the Senate seat PresidentBarackObama left vacant when he moved to the White House.

"This is a time for me to be strong for my children and strong for [my wife] Patti," he said. "This is also a time for Patti and me to get home so we can explain to our kids, our babies Amy and Annie, what happened, what all this means, and where we go from here."

"We're going to keep fighting through this adversity and we'll see you soon," Blagojevich added.

Blagojevich, 54, served two terms as governor before he was impeached and removed from office. He tried unsuccessfully to compete on the NBC reality series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! in 2009; his wife appeared on the program in his place.

In 2010, Blagojevich appeared as a contestant on DonaldTrump's Celebrity Apprentice. He was voted off the NBC series in the fourth episode.